''Ghost of a Rose'' is the fourth studio album by the

folk rock Folk rock is a hybrid music genre that combines the elements of folk and rock music, which arose in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom in the mid-1960s. In the U.S., folk rock emerged from the folk music revival. Performers s ...

group Blackmore's Night, released June 30, 2003. It features covers of

Joan Baez Joan Chandos Baez (; born January 9, 1941) is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and activist. Her contemporary folk music often includes songs of protest and social justice. Baez has performed publicly for over 60 years, releasing more ...

's "

Diamonds and Rust ''Diamonds & Rust'' is the sixteenth studio album (and eighteenth overall) by American singer-songwriter Joan Baez, released in 1975. The album covered songs written or played by Bob Dylan, Stevie Wonder, The Allman Brothers, Jackson Browne and J ...

", and Jethro Tull's "Rainbow Blues".

Background

Allusive to the alchemical feat of palingenesis by Paracelsus, the phrase "ghost of a rose" also occurs in the penultimate paragraph of the physician-philosopher Thomas Browne's 1658 discourse '' The Garden of Cyrus'' which concludes, "...and though in the Bed of ''Cleopatra'', can hardly with any delight raise up the ghost of a Rose".

Track listing

Bonus tracks

Personnel

* Ritchie Blackmore – acoustic guitar,

electric guitar An electric guitar is a guitar that requires external amplification in order to be heard at typical performance volumes, unlike a standard acoustic guitar (however combinations of the two - a semi-acoustic guitar and an electric acoustic gu ...

hurdy-gurdy The hurdy-gurdy is a string instrument that produces sound by a hand-crank-turned, rosined wheel rubbing against the strings. The wheel functions much like a violin bow, and single notes played on the instrument sound similar to those of a vi ...

mandola The mandola (US and Canada) or tenor mandola (Ireland and UK) is a fretted, stringed musical instrument. It is to the mandolin what the viola is to the violin: the four double courses of strings tuned in fifths to the same pitches as the viola ...

tambourine The tambourine is a musical instrument in the percussion family consisting of a frame, often of wood or plastic, with pairs of small metal jingles, called "zills". Classically the term tambourine denotes an instrument with a drumhead, though ...

, Renaissance drum *

Candice Night Candice Night (born May 8, 1971) is an American singer and musician. She has been the vocalist/lyricist and multi-instrumentalist for the traditional folk rock project Blackmore's Night since its origins in 1997 with her husband, guitarist Ritch ...

– chant, penny whistle,

shawm The shawm () is a conical bore, double-reed woodwind instrument made in Europe from the 12th century to the present day. It achieved its peak of popularity during the medieval and Renaissance periods, after which it was gradually eclipsed by th ...

, vocals,

background vocals A backing vocalist is a singer who provides vocal harmony with the lead vocalist or other backing vocalists. A backing vocalist may also sing alone as a lead-in to the main vocalist's entry or to sing a counter-melody. Backing vocalists are us ...

; Additional musicians * Madeline Posner (Lady Madeline) –

harmony vocals Vocal harmony is a style of vocal music in which a consonant note or notes are simultaneously sung as a main melody in a predominantly homophonic texture. Vocal harmonies are used in many subgenres of European art music, including Classical c ...

("Ghost of a Rose", "Way to Mandalay") * Nancy Posner (Lady Nancy) – harmony vocals ("Ghost of a Rose", "Way to Mandalay") * Marnen Laibow-Koser (Lord Marnen of Wolfhurst) –

violin The violin, sometimes known as a '' fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone ( string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument ( soprano) in the family in regu ...

viola ; german: Bratsche , alt=Viola shown from the front and the side , image=Bratsche.jpg , caption= , background=string , hornbostel_sachs=321.322-71 , hornbostel_sachs_desc=Composite chordophone sounded by a bow , range= , related= *Violin family ...

* Robert Curiano (Sir Robert Of Normandie) – bass * David Baranowski (Bard David Of Larchmont) – background vocals ("All for One") * Mike Sorrentino – drums,

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Ex ...

* Tim Cotov – background vocals ("All for One")

Production

* Sascha Braun – photography * Michael Keel – photography * David Owen – photography * Johanna Pieterman – cover art * Pat Regan – mixing, producer * Takaomi Shibayama – design * Carole Stevens – photography

Charts performance

Certifications

Covers

* "Way to Mandalay" was recorded by Axel Rudi Pell on his 2014 album '' Into the Storm''.

References

2003 albums Blackmore's Night albums SPV/Steamhammer albums {{2003-rock-album-stub